


In Retrospect

by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar)



Series: Imagine Tony & Bucky [55]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Awesome Pepper Potts, Bruce Gets The Best Text Messages, Communication Failure, Humor, Insecure Tony, Jealous Tony Stark, Jealousy of Inanimate Objects, M/M, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 04:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4377053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaqen_hgar/pseuds/Finely%20Honed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <span class="small">Prompt: Imagine Tony and Bucky at a Gala and Tony is getting jealous because of all the admirers hanging off of Bucky. It's hard staying away and not ripping every one of them off, because they haven't quite gone public with their relationship yet (not even the team knows). + Tony is jealous of inanimate objects.</span>
</p>
<p>Tony wanted to tell the world, and Bucky wanted to keep it secret, and Tony should have known he wasn’t going to be any damn good at that the moment the jealousy kicked in, which, oddly enough, involved a carton of milk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Retrospect

Tony stepped to the left, then adjusted Pepper slightly so he could maintain his line of sight without her perfect and lovely but still too large to see around noggin blocking his view.

“Again?” she asked, exasperation creeping in. “And my head is _not_  big, Tony.”

Tony had been doing this all night. Dragging Pepper from one spot to another until he had a good vantage point. He’d tried his best to continue making small talk, and answering questions, but it was getting more difficult by the minute.

“Who is that?” he asked, squinting.

“Did you go for the exam?” Pepper asked, pulling out a compact so she could look over her shoulder.

“Yes I went for the exam,” Tony whined, pouting a bit. “And yes I need new glasses. Don’t rub it in, Potts; not the time.”

“That’s Sophia Warren,” Pepper informed him. “Recently divorced, before you ask. She’s also quite the aviatrix.”

Tony’s eyes narrowed as he saw Sophia tip her head back a bit, one hand reaching out to brush against Bucky’s arm as she laughed. “She touched him. He’s being touched.”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “I don’t recall you being this jealous when we were together.”

“Of course I was,” Tony insisted, desperately hoping she didn’t ask him for an example he wouldn’t be able to provide. “And anyway, people  _knew_  about us, Pep—apples and oranges.”

“They knew we were apples and oranges?” she asked dryly, snagging another glass of champagne from a passing waiter. “So why am I still the only one who knows about the two of you?”

Tony fully planned on answering that question, except that a drop dead gorgeous soldier all of five foot five tops had sidled up to Bucky and was getting in on the conversation.

“Not good,” he hissed, face scrunched up in annoyance. “Short? Check. Younger and hotter than me  _and_  in uniform? Check. I told you I should have worn the armor.”

“Wait, being shorter is better now?” Pepper shook her head, began looking around in a way that meant she was about to bail on him.

“Short is good, he likes short.” Tony turned and looked away, making eye contact with Pepper for probably the first time in an hour, then smiled sheepishly when he saw her entirely not amused face was in full effect. “Sorry, it’s a sickness. I need help. I’m actually working on something with Bruce, but we were scared to inject it into me after the initial round of animal testing resulted in…”

“Stop,” Pepper demanded, eyes wide. “Tony, I’m not saying you have to hold a press conference and tell the world, but at least tell the team. They’re not going to judge either of you, so I don’t see what the problem is.”

The problem was Bucky didn’t want to tell the team. Tony would have hired skywriters, taken out full page ads—you know, if print wasn’t dead—blown up twitter and instagram, but Bucky wanted to keep it between the two of them. The only reason Pepper even knew about it was because Tony and Bucky had had a little misunderstanding over whose responsibility it was to lock Tony’s office door. And yes, he’d been the last one through the door, so technically it was  _his_  fault Pepper walked in on what she walked in on, but on the upside it meant Pepper knew.

Problem was, the way things had been going lately it was only a matter of time before he lost his mind and did something horribly, irrevocably embarrassing. Like accidentally subconsciously on purpose leaving a door unlocked before propping his sexy secret boyfriend up against one of the floor to ceiling windows in his office in order to suck his dick. Or, possibly, like the dirty, filthy photo of himself he’d somehow managed to send to Bruce instead of Bucky. Luckily it was just Bruce, and so aside from a lot of teasing, there’d been no real damage done—it wasn’t like that was the first time he’d sent Bruce a nude photo.

Tony wanted to tell the world, and Bucky wanted to keep it secret, and Tony should have known he wasn’t going to be any damn good at that the moment the jealousy kicked in, which, oddly enough, involved a carton of milk.

Bucky had been standing at the fridge at some ungodly hour after they’d all just trounced a gaggle of super enhanced Renfest rejects hell bent on sending the world back to the dark ages or whatever. Bucky had been standing there, still wearing the leather pants, still with black smudged around his eyes, his hair pulled up into a little topknot, a white tank top clinging to his chest and abs and shoulders and back and Tony had made a pathetic little whimpering noise. He’d legitimately whimpered and watched as Bucky tipped back the carton and finished off whatever was left of the milk, his Adam’s apple bobbing, a tiny rivulet of white sliding over his stubbled jaw, and down and down and down.

He’d been irrationally upset, actually had to physically restrain himself from yanking the carton out of Bucky’s hands and stomping on it, because… because really? It got Bucky’s lips all over it right there in the kitchen, while Tony was forced to sit on his hands and grind his teeth and watch Bucky drain every last milky drop? Without touching? Without so much as being able to wink at his lover? Not cool, milk carton. Not cool at all.

Yes, he’d also been jealous of the tank top, because  _come on_!

Appreciating the sight would have been normal. His boner? Totally normal. Dragging Bucky into his workshop and licking him all over, tracking down every last trace of the milk in an attempt to eradicate and vindicate? Maybe slightly less normal, but very satisfying. Later, going down and digging out all the old takeout containers and emptying the rank foodstuffs onto the milk carton where it rested in the trashcan—all while laughing and making mean spirited comments—was absolutely, positively, not even approaching normal in any capacity.

So, yes, in retrospect, that might have been a sign that he had a problem.

It’d been the loufa next, all sudsy and getting rubbed all over Bucky’s naked body. That was a step up from a milk carton, so he let himself slide, but then later the same day he’d found himself getting bent out of shape over the fork Bucky used to eat his dinner, the beer bottle he drank from, even his arm for getting to be attached to him all day.

Tony had his sneaking suspicions that Bucky had picked up on some of his distress and was tormenting him, because no man needed to run his fingers over cylindrical objects as often as Bucky did when they were around other people. Tony would be sucked in immediately, locked in on the movements of Bucky’s fingers until he couldn’t participate in the conversation any longer and had to leave. Bucky probably just thought it was turning Tony on (it was), but it was also leaving him feeling sort of kind of desperate and unbalanced.

“He doesn’t want to,” Tony announced, wincing over how pathetic he’d sounded just then.

Pepper had been attempting to make her escape, not amused that he’d shifted his position in order to eyeball Bucky again, but at this she stopped. “Have you asked him why?”

“He’s not ready.” Tony shrugged, and turned so Bucky was behind him. “So much has been forced on him, I kind of think respecting his wishes is the least I can do.”

“Well, isn’t that mature of you.” Pepper gave him a little pat on the cheek.

“Except, I’m doing things like forgetting to lock doors…”

“I thought we promised not to mention that?”

“Which probably means I’m going to fuck up fantastically any minute now, and he’ll realize it was insane to say yes when I asked him out in the first place, and everything will be over, and I’ll have to move and I  _really_  like him, Pep, so…”

“Stop, stop,” Pepper gave him a little shake. “Tony, tell  _him_  this. There’s always the chance he’ll reconsider letting the team know if he realizes how stressed out you are.”

Tony worried at his lower lip a bit, trying to put what he was feeling into words, but opted to just sigh instead, and slump in Pepper’s direction. With a little, “There, there,” she rubbed the back of his neck the way he liked, and gave him a hug.

“Can I move back to Malibu when he dumps me for hot soldier and the aviatrix?”

“No.”

He was fully prepared to whine until she said yes, but then he heard a little throat clearing noise, and extracted himself from Pepper’s embrace. Bucky was standing there, looking uncertain as to whether or not he should say something. Tony hoped he hadn’t heard the little crack about Bucky’s newest fan club members. It wasn’t their fault they found Tony’s secret boyfriend attractive, and Bucky was absolutely entitled to talk to whomever he liked. _Tony_  was the one with the problem.

“Bucky, good,” Pepper said sweetly, gently pushing Tony closer to Bucky. “Keep him out of the tabloids for me, would you? I need to mingle.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Bucky actually looked concerned, so Tony reached for him, intending to comfort, then caught himself before making contact, and snatched his hand back quickly, as if he’d been burned. “No, you’re fine, no interruption.”

Tony watched as Bucky looked around the room, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched in a very poor showing of false nonchalance. “Just, ah. You two looked pretty serious over here.”

“Nope. Catching up. Or, um. So, having a good time?”

Bucky shrugged, then took another step closer, lowered his voice. “Sure. Not really. You’ve been staying on the opposite side of the room all night.”

He wanted to say that wasn’t true, but then he thought back over their movements that evening, and realized that each time Bucky had shifted, it had been toward him and Pep, only he’d repositioned himself immediately in order to have a good view of who Bucky was talking to, and what inanimate objects he might need to exact his revenge upon later.

“Ah. That was actually not my intention,” Tony swore. Bucky was standing awfully close, which was wonderful and also a little awful. He didn’t trust himself not to touch, so he put some more space between them.

Bucky blinked at this, his head tilting as he studied Tony. “Why do you keep backing up, then?”

“What? Oh, uh,” Tony smiled at someone walking past them, then looked around for Pepper. He needed a human shield before he did something awful. Bucky looked much, much too good in his suit, and the current level of resentment he had for the man’s belt buckle was just not healthy.

“Tony,” Bucky said, snapping his fingers. Tony glared at this, but got over his irritation rather quickly. Bucky looked pretty concerned about something. “You’d tell me if I did something to upset you, right?”

“What? No, you didn’t,” Tony waved his hands, then snatched them back as they wandered dangerously close to Bucky’s chest. “It’s not you, it’s me.”

“Oh.”

Bucky looked a lot like what Tony imagined a kicked puppy might look like—not that he spent a lot of time imagining that sort of thing, because that would be horrible. “Wait, why are you saying ‘oh’ like  _that_?”

“It kinda sounds like I’m getting dumped,” Bucky whispered after taking a few deep breaths.

“What?” Tony grabbed his arm, forgetting the no touching rule, then dragged Bucky out onto one of the balconies. “I am definitely not dumping you,” he said as soon as they were alone. “I’m… Look, I’m having a hard time with the keeping it secret thing. I understand you’re not ready, and I respect that, but I spend so much time worrying about doing or saying something to give us away that I’m beginning to resent anything that gets to openly touch you when I can’t. Including that stupid, adorable hat you wore the other night. That’s why I knocked it off your head, I was jealous of a hat. A  _hat_ , Bucky!”

Once he caught his breath and stopped his weird, hissing confession, Tony expected Bucky to appear disgusted, or perhaps irritated. Not laughing at him, though.

“Yeah, it’s hilarious.”

“No, it isn’t,” Bucky swore, “I’m just laughing because I’m relieved. Honest.”

Tony rubbed his temple and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “People follow me around and snap photos, and that doesn’t mix well with secret relationships. I take respecting you seriously, Buck, and it’d really suck to mess this up.”

Cool fingers wrapped around the nape of his neck, and it was like _déjà vu_  all over again, only this time it was Bucky’s shoulder he was being pulled against, and Bucky’s fingers carding through his hair.

“Is this why you’ve been so stressed out lately?”

“Maybe,” he said into Bucky’s shoulder.

“You coulda said something.”

Tony sighed, and slowly slid his hands around Bucky’s waist, until he was legitimately hugging him. “It’s not fair to you.”

“Hey,” Bucky pushed him to arm’s length, and waited until Tony met his eyes. “Sounds like it hasn’t been too fair to you. This is our relationship, not _my_  relationship. It’s supposed to be about what we bothwant, right?”

Looking into Bucky’s eyes was enough to tell him downplaying the value of his own wants and desires at this point wasn’t going to be received very well. “Yes?”

“Then talk to me. You wanna go public, is that it?”

Anyone would have been able to tell that Bucky was very obviously uncomfortable with this idea. Tony prepared to lie, or come up with excuses why keeping quiet was for the best, but Bucky was right. He was so busy being scared of losing Bucky that he was falling back into his old, stupid patterns, which more or less guaranteed the entire thing would explode in his face.

“Not public,” he clarified, taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders. “I’d like to tell the team, though.”

A great deal of the tension abandoned Bucky’s shoulders. “Yeah, okay. I don’t like lying to them, and even though we’re not actually lying, we’re not exactly telling the truth, either.”

Tony exhaled in a rush, feeling almost as if he might float off of the balcony, which was more alarming than you’d think as far as feelings went. “Yeah? Wow, uh. Huh. That’s, ah, okay, that’s actually a big relief.”

“Good. We can tell ‘em here, so they can’t make too much of a scene.”

Bucky winked and Tony burst out laughing, clapping him on the shoulder. “I like the way you think. Shall we make the rounds?”

“Certainly,” Bucky agreed, leaning over to drop a quick kiss against Tony’s lips. “And then later, you and me can have another talk about how communication is the most important thing in any good relationship.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Sam.”

“Not kidding, Tony,” Bucky said sweetly, batting his lashes. “I like this you and me thing, and I’d like to see us keep doing it.”

Tony had the return of the awful wonderful floaty feeling. “I’d like that, too.”

A quick look around, another stolen kiss, and they headed back into the gala. When Pepper caught his eye, Tony smiled and then sent her a text message with a little thumbs up.

And then, maybe, kinda, he just barely resisted knocking an entire tray of cocktail wieners to the ground in a fit of rage, because the little spicy sausage bastards were so epically unworthy of Bucky’s mouth it wasn’t even funny.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why it is so fun to think about Tony getting angry with milk cartons and the like, but I had a little too much fun doing so. I might have problems. I'm completely okay with these problems.


End file.
